Ubuntu Linux OS ‎Heading For Apple-Like Solution

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November 29, 2010 5 Comments

The operating system Ubuntu has firmly established itself and is now the Number One Linux Operating System. The OS, sponsored by Canonical, which is growing in use by both consumers and business will certainly face new tests as it continues to advance forward and here we take a look at how Ubunto will face the challenges ahead.

An interesting article by Swapnil Bhartiya over on Muktware discusses this prospect with Prakash Advani, Canonical’s Partner Manager for Central Asia and Bhartiya indicates that Ubuntu has found its own niche, “an Apple-like approach.” The question of whether Ubunto plans to go into hardware as a complete solution is then asked. Advani asserts that there are no plans for Ubuntu to enter the hardware market as it prefers to concentrate on Ubuntu. However he also points out that the company acts with hardware manufacturers so that products based on Ubuntu are first-rate.

Advani also discusses hardware support and says that Ubuntu has an extensive forum of users adding that occasional hardware problems are often solved by the Ubuntu community in its forum. Advani says, “We also engage with the OEMs to certify there hardware, this assures the customers that all the hardware that is certified with Ubuntu will work properly. We are happy to work with hardware manufacturers who want better support on Linux.”

For much more and the full interview go to muktware.com. What are your thoughts on the future for Ubuntu? We’d welcome your comments so feel free to send them to us.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: Apple, Linux, OS, Ubuntu

http://www.clockworkpc.com.au clockworkpc

I think it's quite a stretch to go from working with OEMs to controlling the entire stack like Apple. In this context, an Apple-like approach means the following to most interested readers:

1) Extreme restrictions on users
2) Great attention to presentation
3) Restriction of the OS to a narrow range of hardware
4) The cultivation of brainless fanboyism for anything to do with its brand

With respect to (2) I agree that Ubuntu has taken a leaf out of Apple's book, ,hich is wonderful; however, let's be sensible and not throw the A word around every time someone in Linux tries to be a little more professional.
GrammarPolice

There is a typographical error in your article. In the last sentence of the second paragraph Ubuntu is spelled wrong.
Anony Mouse

Strange assertion that the Ubuntu community fixes hardware. Typically they post hacks or workarounds which are short-term solutions. Meanwhile a profitable company like Red Hat, which has much more clout, or one of its partners (IBM, Toshiba, Dell, etc.) actually produces hardware drivers or fixes code for the long term.
jplatt39

What you say is correct, and it is what bothers me about Shuttleworth's and Canonical's line about competing with Apple. My fine arts training has led me to accept that whatever else you might say about him Jobs is as great an impressario as Sergei Diaghilev and the four steps you have described (especially 1 and 4) are what is needed to market machines which are at the high end of presentation graphics. Any company could create a visually compelling OS but while dyne:bolic is a work of art, Pure Dyne, its Ubuntu-derived successor has real flaws (very few of which seem traceable to its Ubuntu origins: gcc is still a requirement for working with most graphics programs and while it works out of the box on the original when I am working with the alternative I find I am always reinstalling it at the start of my sessions). Dyne:bolic is also as an OS unique in many ways, and as Rasta software has very little in common with the Apple approach.

The Apple approach works beautifully to bring you the Apple effects, as I've done commercial art I sometimes have to work on Macs and I have no complaints about the experience. For commercial art. The experience involves the four steps you mentioned (try doing something on Slackware for most art editors — and dyne:bolic is slackware so step four is still relevant). It is not the only valid approach of course, and what I find disturbing is precisely Ubuntu's determination to get those effects, as shown in the abominable Lucid Lynx and the otherwise much better Maverick Meerkat (I don't want to be nasty about 10.10 at all but 10.4 is garbage and I really do fear what the 11 releases are going to be like).

There are many ways to be artistic. Just because Jobs has built a life out of one doesn't make it better than any other.
steveneddy

Quote:

We also engage with the OEMs to certify there hardware

Sorry to correct – but the use of the word "thier" after certify is the correct grammar to use in this case.